Rla-Nathoa, the Gurgling Morass

The Ascendant Realm of Shuul'sogua, Who Devours the Roots of the World. The birthplace of all of Edras' oozes, the Gurgling Morass is dominated by bubbling, fetid swamps, covered with oozes, molds and slimes. An overcast sky of mud-brown and rotten green clouds casts the realm in pallid gloom. Every few hours, a pregnant cloud bursts, spilling torrential rains of polluted water. A thin film of cloying moisture covers everything in the Gurgling Morass. Strange life forms coalesce here, sometimes by the will of the creatures who reside here, but sometimes spontaneously from the pools of slime themselves. Rla-Nathoa orbits Edras once every 231 years. Probably the least inhabited of any of the ascendant realms, Rla-Nathoa is often thought to be the most inhospitable of them all. It’s not that Ooze kills so quickly, which it does, but because it is such a horrible, stench-ridden, caustic ocean of muck, mud, and other rotting things that people have come to believe that it is truly the hell of the sphere. Few visitors willingly travel to the Gurgling Morass, and it seems as if even the inhabitants want out in an exodus from the slime, sludge, and muck of this world.

Places of Interest

The Trash Heap: The Trash Heap might have the largest concentration of portals to Rla-Nathoa, but that is because it needs a place to put its waste material, as there is nowhere in the city to put it. Instead, it gets pumped through one of their portals, often requiring the dabus to clear out any clogs, and ends up in the Gurgling Morass. Miles upon miles of junk litter this place - rotting food, old tools and weapons, and even the occasional body, sometimes still alive, floats across this area. While many might turn their nose up, the trash heap is inhabited by canny individuals looking through the junk, as sometimes there are treasures and lost items of high value worth living out here for.
The Cysts: This region is quite useful for those who wish to entomb and entrap creatures using powerful magics to sink targets of their magic into the muck. These trapped creatures create cysts in the mire, and they are preserved, like living fossils, in this ascendant realm. While cysts are impossible to see through, making it difficult to tell what is on the other side, they can provide some clues - a giant will form a cyst that is 15 feet or more in length, while a kobold may only create one a few feet tall. Occasionally these cysts might rupture, spilling forth their contents, and while many might drown on the filth around them, several have escaped their confines, driven insane by the untold eons trapped in Rla-Nathoa. On rare occasions, travelers have walked on cysts that have risen to the surface, accidentally rupturing the cyst and spilling out whatever creature had been locked away.
Shedaklah: Shedaklah is a bubbling morass of oozing, fetid sludge situated between two sluggish branches of the River Styx. Here and there, a low hillock or fungal forest peaks up from the plain of caustic, unintelligent slime. Shedaklah is most notably the contested domain of Zuggtmoy, Queen of Fungi, and Juiblex, the Faceless One. All manner of plant and fungal creatures dwell upon the surface of Shedaklah, paying honor to Zuggtmoy by means of the parasitic processes that keep them alive. Phantom fungi, myconids, shambling mounds, tendriculoses, and giant sundews - many fiendish or half-fiendish - abound on the layer, reveling in its unnaturally warm dampness. These faithful servants of the Fungi Queen seek out and destroy the few alien beings of organic ooze that emerge from the lightless depths of the layer, but in the deeper caves the slime creatures of Juiblex are so numerous that one must swim through them to make progress. The listless souls of victims claimed by Zuggtmoy's cults on Edras wander the surface of Shedaklah, numbly seeking shelter and hopelessly fishing for food that is too infested to eat. When these constantly starving, endlessly suffering playthings grow too sparse, the queen turns her attention once more to the mortal realm in an effort to increase the power and influence of her cult, bringing more and more lost souls to Shedaklah.
The Slime Pits: At the edge of Zuggtmoy's control, across the far bank of the River Styx, five bubbling slime-filled chasms erupt onto the surface of Shedaklah like pus from a broken scab. Ranging in color from olive, mustard, green, ochre, and gray, the pools lead deeper into the heart of the realm, where the Faceless One Juiblex holds sway. Legions of oozes and formless jellies serve Juiblex within the pits, moving at its orders and devouring what it tells them to devour. The most powerful of these servants, a hezrou-possessed black pudding of exceptional size known as Darkness Given Hunger, serves as Juiblex's most favored servant, occasionally venturing to the surface or into Edras on the hunt for a particularly delicious morsel.
Xhubhullosk: A mortal settlement! An assortment of lean-tos and rotting stalk structures that sit above the acidic pools. It is home to people who became stranded in this ascendant realm. Myconid servants of Zuggtmoy harass them frequently and try to convert them into worshipers of Zuggtmoy.
Thullgrime: A town in the twisted tunnels. It is home to cultist explorers, wererats and "disease-riddled consumptives." In some places, the ground is alive and drags creatures below. Eventually, their bones bubble up to the surface. The place is ruled by Cullis Heartrend, who is served by a creature known as the Grollog, a huge amorphous beast with dripping pits for eyes. It is somewhat intelligent and can communicate in broken Shurkash. Nobody knows why it serves Cullis.